Intel Upgrades Server System Chip Line

Intel Corp. has added five different products with several new features to upgrade its Xeon server system chip line.

Such features became important selling points for Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel’s new products also include a companion chip-set product that connects those calculating engines to other parts of a computer, the Journal reported.

They will help midrange servers with four or more microprocessors used by companies for running databases, business-applications software and other chores.

AMD has targeted those machines with its Opteron chip, which was designed to run new 64-bit programs and has other advantages when constructing systems that use multiple processors, the Journal said.

Intel also added 64-bit Xeon models last year and the new products will provide that capability to the rest of the company’s product line.

The new microprocessors, along with the new chip set, also will double the capacity of a communications channel that sends data to other parts of a computer. They will cost from $722 to less than $3,700 each.